Decarbonisation startup Loam, which uses microbes to sequester carbon in farm soils, has raised $105 million in a Series B. The latest raise comes 20 months after its $40 million Series A – and brings the total raised to $150 million Loam’s Series B was co-led by US climate-focused VC Lowercarbon Capital and former Macquarie… Read more »
Welcome to our weekly column on the important things to see and do for the ANZ startup community, brought to you by the director of the Spark Festival, Maxine Sherrin. She picks out 3 things worth putting in the diary for the week ahead. If you’d like to know more, sign up to the Weekly Sparks,… Read more »
Software-focused venture capital firm EVP has closed its fourth fund after hitting its $100 million final target. The business-to-business (B2B)-focused VC now has more than $270 million in funds under management amid more than 40 early-stage startup investments in software companies in Australia and New Zealand, including Ignition, Deputy, Shippit and Hnry. The sole trader… Read more »
Render Networks has made two key executive appointments after doubling its workforce over the past year. The construction tech platform’s growth comes after IFM Investor took a $40 million majority stake in the business in mid-2022. Omar Ramadan, former Calix and Advanced Fibre Communications executive, has joined Render as the Vice President of Customer Operations.… Read more »
Sydney autonomous driving technology startup Baraja has sacked around 75% of its workforce. The layoffs come just a month after the business received an undisclosed level of investment from Swedish automotive safety company Veoneer, which Baraja CEO and cofounder Federico Collarte said “validates the market traction” of the business. Baraja was founded in 2015 by… Read more »
Brisbane recruitment tech startup, Getahead, which pitches itself as “Tinder for jobs”, has raised $1.38 million in pre-Seed funding The round was led by Ezidebit founder Michael Dempsey’s investment fund, Pipeline Capital, supported by Di Bella Coffee founder Phil Di Bella. Founder Sam McNamara launched Getahead in December last year with the goal of reducing… Read more »
Mining billionaires Andrew and Nicola Forrest are backing female founders in the latest Startmate accelerator program in a bid to close the funding gap for women. The Forrests have signed a strategic partnership deal with Startmate through their private investment vehicle Tattarang. The Summer23 cohort includes Raj Bagri from Kapture, who is working on decarbonising… Read more »
New Zealand brand tracking startup Tracksuit has raised NZ$7.5 million (A$6.8m) in Seed round. The raise was led by Blackbird, which chipped in $3.6 million, supported by Kiwi VC Icehouse Ventures, Ascential, Shasta Ventures and veteran brand consultant Mark Ritson. Tracksuit helps companies measure and understand brand value via weekly global surveys to track consumer… Read more »
Two tech startups, TalkVia AI and a2b Transformation have joined forces to tackle Australia’s job shortage with Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT)-powered digital workers for customer service roles. Queensland-based TalkVia AI streamlines customer service conversations using artificial intelligence and helps businesses engage with customers on a larger scale. Victorian tech co a2b Transformation provides businesses with… Read more »
Female readers know how bad period pain can get. For the men, I’d say, imagine being kicked in the nuts every month for four days straight. Oof. Ouch, right? That’s what it feels like for your mothers, daughters, sisters, wives, or any friends with a vagina going through primary menstrual pain (dysmenorrhoea) or, even worse,… Read more »
Sydney fintech CryptoSpend is looking to raise $5 million in a Series A as it sets its sights on expansion into Asia and New Zealand. CryptoSpend launched the first Australian native crypto Visa card in late 2021, which allows users to spend their crypto like cash. Its existing backers include fintech veteran Andrew Porter and the… Read more »
Today, if you want to find a good moving company, you might ask your favourite search engine – Google, Bing, or DuckDuckGo perhaps – for some advice. After wading past half a page of adverts, you get a load of links to articles on moving companies. You click on one of the links and finally… Read more »
ChatGPT has taken the world by storm. Within two months of its release, it reached 100 million active users, making it the fastest-growing consumer application ever launched. Users are attracted to the tool’s advanced capabilities – and concerned by its potential to cause disruption in various sectors. A much less discussed implication is the privacy… Read more »
Sydney payroll and workforce management software company Humanforce has acquired the Australian arm of fintech Wagestream – formerly Earnd – for an undisclosed sum. Its the second local startup acquisition in six months by Humanforce, which is now backed by Californian private firm, which snapped up Airtree-backed competitor Ento in September last year. Accel-KKR spent… Read more »
Queensland meat alternative startup Fable has raised US$8.5 million (A$12.3m) as it ramps up its expansion in global markets. The round was led by Singapore VC 3 Ventures, supported by Better Bite Ventures, former YUM CEO Greg Creed, the expat Australian ethicist and animal rights campaigner Professor Peter Singer, SaladStop founders Frantz Braha and Adrien… Read more »
Daily startup news and insights, delivered to your inbox.
